So those people sitting outside the Polling station...

[ciderhouserules]

What are they doing? There was one today (festooned in Yellow rosettes and ribbons) who asked me for my Polling card. I asked why and he said 'just to record that you've turned up'. I just walked away.

The fact that I've voted is recorded by the Polling clerk inside the Polling station, who crosses off my Name and Polling number on the list.

So what do the people sitting outside record from me?

I've never encountered one, and never heard of the 'teller' thing before, and I've voted several times.

@AmelieTaylor I've never seen anything like you describe at a polling station and this is not how we are instructed to act. Are you sure it wasn't an poll clerk? I was also asked as I went in by poll clerk today if I had my ID with me, although not aggressively. The party reps usually are a bit further back and will typically wear some kind of rosette or t-shirt to identify which party they represent. If it was a party rep then you should report it to the local party.

If parties are targetting they often do not send tellers to areas they know are utterly one party. It is a waste of resource.

Some areas have limited political activism of any type, really. Although this election I suspect many areas are more active than 2019 or 2017 as the Lib Dems will be fighting more rural areas and Labour is looking further down the list than usual.

They don't expect, they ask.

You can't have a democracy without political activism.

@bergamotorange the local LibDems will stoop to anything. They are notorious! They have been in trouble a few times for lying about opposing candidates.

Their candidate lives 30 miles away where they are a councillor in a different county!

Same with our constituency: two of the candidates have been parachuted in from London (we're in the Midlands) and a third is from the same county, but nowhere near our town.

It should be such an obvious, basic rule that anybody wishing to represent a constituency should have lived there continuously for at least five years. Can anybody tell me why it could possibly not be better to have somebody who knows the local area than somebody who has probably never even been there?

The fact that no government has ever seriously proposed a vote to make this a standard, fundamental law in parliamentary representation tells you a very great deal about how much they actually wish to serve us, rather than themselves.

What you are describing sounds serious - I do not believe your 'DD's friend's DM' would be so lax as to not report such a thing if they saw it.

I don't believe it. Parties issue very strict advice about postal votes now for obvious reasons.

As for 'lying about opposing candidates' - what type of lying? Because all parties present their opponents in a bad light, that is par for the course.

Where I live has voted for the same party since I was 3 (a lot of years ago) so I’ve never seen a teller outside. There’s zero point.

The only time I ever saw one was when I worked at a polling station at an election.

There weren’t any at my polling station today when I went. However there was one at the station I went to be a proxy for a family member. Normally I don’t mind sharing if they ask but I found this one quite rude when I hesitated. Also petty on my behalf but I didn’t like the way I was asked- it didn’t feel like she was giving me the option. Plus as it was as a proxy vote I felt it wasn’t my data to share.

I live in NE Wales.
Our Labour MP lives in our town.
Lib Dem candidate lives in another town but still NE Wales.
Plaid Cymru candidate has the most stereotypical Welsh name and address physically possible.
Meanwhile the Tory Candidate lives in London. Says it all.

I've no issue at all with political activism. But anybody who is confident and proud of what they are doing in that sphere will make no secret of who they are - and will not have their colleagues loiter outside polling stations with the obvious intent of making the uninitiated assume that they are neutral electoral stewards.

Technically, you may be right that they are not expecting people to show them their polling cards; but neither do they usually ask, in a way that makes it very clear that it's an optional request from somebody with nothing whatsoever to do with the electoral process.

@bergamotorange - well, one thing was stating other candidates were not local. Once it’s on their leaflets it’s out there, even if there’s a retraction later. Doing this once might be a mistake, but twice?

The care home thing - it was actually reported by another home. I don’t know if anything came of it.

That doesn't seem a big slander to me. All the parties make a thing of why their opponents are not local.

I take it you are not keen on the Lib Dems

I think it is more a case of them not understanding that many people don't know about tellers.

People are less informed about politics now - it used to just be the norm.

Many tellers are pretty advanced in age as the younger activists are door-knocking - it probably doesn't occur to them that people don't know!

Indeed it does - however, in our case, it's the Tory from the other side of the county and the Labour person from London.

One other minor party candidate is also from London and the rest are from our town/area. Only four out of seven candidates wanting to represent our area actually live in our area.

None of the major parties are above doing this, it seems.

Sorry your school was shit.

I was taught this in secondary school. My children who took history (or politics) in the last few years were also taught this (I just asked). In fairness other one wasn’t. Perhaps as the school was a polling station they felt it useful to spell out who did what role and why.

The BBC always runs stories on their front page of news on election day explaining who Tellers are, what they do and why. Again, anyone even vaguely interested could find out.

Tellers generally wear a rosette.

Anyway, no one outside a polling station should ever be assumed to be neutral. The neutrality is enforced within the polling station and ballot box. Outside is fair game.

If, as a citizen of this country who has reached the voting age, you aren’t interested enough to know how your political system works then yes, it is ignorance.

Screenshot of BBC News article for first time voters explaining Tellers:

You may be right; but I personally have grave suspicions.

Again, if you are the proud local candidate for X party for Y town - or their trusted representative - and you genuinely believe that you are doing a valuable job for the local community, enabling folk to engage more easily with the democratic process and arranging lifts for those who need them... why would you NOT want to introduce yourself as such, or at least have a prominent badge with your name and party on it?

@bergamotorange to be fair I’m not keen on any local activists of any party - in a moment of madness I got involved as an independent - and encountered some really nasty people. One of the LibDems did say to be fair that it was all good sport and nothing personal, but others were very unpleasant. The Conservatives were all just very old or very peculiar.

Not to derail, but I really cannot believe the breath-taking arrogance of petitioning people in one area where you have never lived to elect you to represent them in all of their specific local concerns.

I have no knowledge of or interest in football whatsoever, but if Gareth Southgate ever resigns, I might throw my hat into the ring for the job of the new manager - I'd make a name for myself and the money is good, so stuff whatever the football fans think, eh?

Even if you personally went to the best school in the land and are super intelligent, you are still assuming a great deal of those who are not so privileged.

Politics should be for everybody, even those who are below average intelligence and/or went to rough schools.

Something like 7% of people in the UK go to ANY private/public school. What percentage of that small minority go to Eton? Yet more than one third of all of our Prime Minsters were educated there. Probably only a looney conspiracy theorist who would see anything odd or undesirable in that, though, eh?

does anyone ever say yes please can we stop at tesco/the pub on the way?

Or insist on singing One Million Green Bottles before they will get out of the car

😃"are we there yet???"

Yes, my school was shit. Shame on me for being one of the poor unwashed, eh?

I'm very interested in politics, but am not aware of every archane and technical detail. This particular scam isn't something I'd heard of before, but at least I'm aware of it now.

I was a bit taken aback by them at our polling station, because they were inside and seemed official so I wasn't aware I could choose not to give them my information. She didn't introduce herself or anything like that. Surely that's not allowed?